Aubin, a leading independent supplier of specialist chemicals to the oil & gas industry, has completed a major expansion of its laboratory and testing facilities at its UK headquarters.

Aubin has the only independent cement test centre in the UK, where the strictest quality control methods are used to ensure the highest standards. This ensures Aubin can provide independent third-party verifications on offshore cement jobs, a critical safety component of the offshore production process.

Significant investment has taken place in the last year in laboratory equipment to ensure that the specialist oilfield cement and chemical laboratory can develop materials required by customers around the world, with a particular emphasis on high temperature/high pressure projects.

Aubin, based in Ellon, Scotland, and established in 1987, designs, manufactures and supplies high-quality cementing and stimulation chemical technology for a wide range of oil field applications.

The complex includes more than 170m sq of laboratory facilities, 2,600m sq m of warehousing and workshop space and a further 300m sq of office accommodation.

To complement its research facilities, the company has a full blending facility for both liquids and powders (from 20 tonnes down to 200litres for trial applications) as well as chemical storage and management facilities to support offshore and onshore operations internationally.

Aubin focuses strongly on research and development and also invested nearly $1.5million in the last four years developing products with a large potential market, including pipeline pigging and cleaning applications. Commercialisation of additional technologies for subsea applications such as insulation, buoyancy and pipeline commissioning is underway. All product design work is carried out to ISO 9001 standards.

Managing Director Paddy Collins said: “Our commitment to providing quality laboratory facilities ensures we can carry out testing to reassure our clients of the integrity of cement jobs on their offshore drilling operations.

“The investment in the facilities also has helped our R&D work result in extremely marketable products that differentiate us and give us a competitive advantage. Our ethos is all about clever chemistry that’s easy to use and our investment is ongoing in developing smart products that work well with existing kit to protect the environment and extend asset lifespan.

“We have had good feedback about our new, patented technologies having enormous scope for the deepwater industry as it moves into increasingly more difficult environments.’’

Mr Collins added: “Aubin built a reputation for designing products that solved a specific difficulty being faced by an operator and then went on to find long-term success in the industry. Now we are looking at some of the most common issues facing the subsea sector and coming up with practical solutions that address challenges more cost-effectively and safely.

“It has been important to us to maintain an active research group of graduate chemists and highly-experienced oilfield personnel developing products to specific oilfield requirements. Our customers increasingly view us as part of their R&D effort and we routinely help clients win new work with our specialist products.’’

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